In the days following the deadly attack on Parliament Hill in October 2014, I watched a Facebook fight unfold between a number of self-declared progressives who couldn’t decide what to call perpetrator Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. The question was not whether Zehaf-Bibeau was a terrorist or not — the term was not even on the table — but rather, whether the inclination to call him “mentally ill” served to unfairly stigmatize others with mental illness. The line in this particular Facebook dispute thus divided those who insisted we say Zehaf-Bibeau was “in crisis” when he shot Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial, and those who were content to label him simply as “mentally ill.”

That clash was a textbook example of the left’s penchant for accidentally eating itself: even among the ideologically aligned, there is always room to call out someone’s privilege, his or her ignorance, or a group’s latent bigotry.

Something similar happened in the hours after Toronto’s Pride Parade on Sunday, at which Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) — honoured guests at this year’s event — shut down the procession for 30 minutes until Pride’s executive director signed a document ceding to the group’s demands, which included increases in various forms of funding and removal of police floats and booths from Pride celebrations.

The reaction among many fairly prominent community activists in the aftermath of the disruption was split: some chastised BLMTO leaders for having the audacity to usurp a celebration about gay pride — pride among people of all religions, colours, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds — to make it all about themselves, while others chastised BLMTO’s critics for failing to appreciate how questions of intersectionality play into the enduring struggle for gay rights. As the debate unfolded, activists who should have been on the same side — that is, that of tolerance, acceptance, against oppression and discrimination — were suddenly accusing each other of being latent racists or toxic and egotistical agitators. A celebration about inclusivity thus devolved into a sputtering, divisive mess.

BLMTO’s leaders and their allies claim their interruption was a necessary reminder that social movements often work in the interests of their wealthy white members first — early feminism is an obvious example — leaving its communities of colour to pick up the slack behind. And they’re not wrong. BLMTO can claim, with some credibility, that its disruption of the parade was important, or necessary, but it will have a hard time making the case that it did more good than bad, especially as hundreds of simultaneous Facebook fights about “pinkwashing” and “anti-blackness” enter their second day. And surely it would not tolerate a similar protest by Pride Toronto members at the Toronto Caribbean Carnival parade later this month.

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The question of future police participation in subsequent Pride events has only compounded the mess, with many accusing BLMTO of undermining recent progress made between the LGBT community and Toronto police, which included an historic apology offered by Police Chief Mark Saunders last month for a string of raids made on gay bathhouses in 1981. They claim, rightfully, that to ban future police participation in Pride events would be a step in the wrong direction, and would only alienate gay members of the Toronto Police Service, including Const. Chuck Krangle who penned on open letter urging the organization to reconsider its promise to BLMTO, arguing that “exclusion does not promote inclusion.”

Indeed, the tens of thousands of onlookers who have watched Toronto’s annual Pride Parade march down Yonge Street have surely noted the diversity of its participants: there are Liberals, Conservatives, church groups, unions, Arabs and Jews, all marching to support inclusiveness, diversity and the freedom for people to love who they love. That’s what this year’s event, and all Pride events, should be about. Instead, this year’s Pride parade left supposed allies fuming from separate corners, while BLMTO’s leaders proudly claimed victory for a job well done. It’s hard to see how starting a fight between groups that are working toward the same goals is really a cause for celebration.